We've got another great couple of competitions for UK readers.

First up, one reader will win an iPod Nano and a copy of Secret Files: Tunguska for the PC, and nine runners-up will take home a copy of the game. You can find out more, and enter, here. The closing date is 3rd November, so enter soon!

Secondly, if you pop over to the UK forum, we're giving away some tickets to the Guitar Hero II launch party. Please note you must be over 18 to enter and the competition ends on 29th October.

**Please note: These competitions are both now closed. Thanks for entering!**
[Update 25/10/06: The organisers of Game City are giving away 50 copies of the event's soundtrack CD through the GameSpot UK forum - see here for more details.]

Good luck!

Here's the second (and final) part of my photos from After Hours...


GameSpot editors Jason, Aaron, Greg and Brian take on the users while Homer reports in the background


GameSpot Australia's Randolph rocks out with Guitar Hero II.


Alex Navarro and Ryan Davis take to the stage and rock the crowd!


It's UK vs Australia on the dance mat!

I took my camera along to After Hours last weekend, and here are some of the photos... more to follow soon. There are also lots of shots of the event in this news story and the video highlights of the event are now available on the After Hours page.


Rich keeps it real with Ricardo and Ryan on the main stage.


Backstage, the Live team keep the broadcasts running smoothly.


Gamers get to grips with the PlayStation 3.

Well, After Hours was great fun. The highlights go live on Monday (California time) and they will be well worth a look, I'm sure! Photos to follow, but here are some highlights for me:

- Watching the tournaments. The guys who won the Counter-Strike one were amazing (anyone who has ever seen my Counter-Strike 'technique' will understand why I was in awe) and it was cool that they'd never actually met in person before!

- Getting beat up by the other three players at Full Auto 2: Battlelines on the PS3. I actually didn't come last (!!) and if I'd been able to remember which button was my secondary weapon (lesson: listen to the man who gives you the info before you play...) I'd have been dangerous. It was my first time with a PS3 (Phil and Guy have all the fun :wink: ) which made it even cooler.

- Watching the GameSpot Australia guys fail miserably at Guitar Hero II. And blaming the fact that the controller didn't have a strap? That's just wrong...

- Rocking out on the Dance Dance Revolution Supernova dancemat. The back arrow was a bit dodgy though - or maybe that was just my sense of rhythm.

- Jeff Gerstmann, a red tracksuit, a microphone and some funky beats. There is truly no end to this man's talents.

- HomerCam. Watch the highlights!

Alex (aka Sebflyte) and I are in San Francisco this week, to visit our colleagues at GameSpot.com and attend some meetings. More work than play, but this weekend is After Hours, and so we're going to be attending that. (Alex is working with the Tournaments team, which should be a great experience and I'm sure he'll blog about that.)

After Hours takes place on Saturday night (San Francisco time) which means it starts at 1am UK time. There's some really cool stuff happening online though - especially in terms of live broadcasts - so if you're up late (or early) it's definitely worth a look. If you can't stay up all night, I'm sure there will be plenty to check out tomorrow on the After Hours page, and I'm going to take my camera as well!

At the moment I'm getting stuff organised for next week - from my hotel room I can even see the office to remind me to get it all done!



The CNET building is the one with the green glass at the top - the bridge behind is the Bay Bridge rather than the Golden Gate though!

One of the highlights of London Games Festival this week was the BAFTA Video Game Awards, where the Academy elevated video gaming to the same status as film and TV (at last) and handed out gongs in categories ranging from mobile & casual to game of the year. Guy was in the press room and did some live blogging about what was happening before the show started and when the winners came off stage (he also scored an interview with Christian Allen, designer on GRAW).

I was lucky enough to attend the event, and what really struck me was how passionate everyone was about video games, and how pleased they were that some high-profile recognition was being bestowed on them. Each award was given out by a different 'celebrity', and some of them (Iain Lee in particular) were clearly really keen gamers. And one of them was Nick Rhodes (of Duran Duran fame, if you're under 30...) who I was a huge fan of in my teenage years, but he looks a little different now!

It's unlikely that anyone would agree with every winner, but that's the case at every awards ceremony. The main point is, though, that the gaming industry is being recognised as one of the UK's (not to mention the world's) major creative industries. The fact that it is one won't surprise any regular GameSpot readers, but recognition on this scale (the ceremony will be on E4 next week I think) can only help to open the eyes of those who don't currently recognise the quality levels that some games are achieving.


The event was held at the newly rebuilt Roundhouse in north London.


I know it's sad, but I thought storm troopers checking tickets was really cool...


The big screens showcased the BAFTA mask before the event began.

We've got a new competitions for UK-based readers to enter - where you can win a Sennheiser PC120 headset! You can find more information about the prizes and details of how to enter on this competition page. Good luck!

I was running on a treadmill yesterday - which is nowhere near as much fun as running outside, but sometimes it's the easiest way - and thinking about all the innovations that are popping up around the 'next-gen' (or is that 'next-next-gen' now...) consoles. And I had an idea...

I'm still catching up on all our Tokyo Game Show coverage (well done to the team who went out there, they managed to cover an inhuman amount) but one thing that caught my eye was the GPS receiver for PSP.

So as my thoughts meandered between 'how much longer have I got to run for' and 'should I pre-order a Wii' I started to wonder if there could be a way to make exercise more rewarding (bear with me here). For example, if you are playing Wii sports, and the controller had GPS, could you get points for going running/walking/cycling as part of a 'training' mode? It sounds like the Wii has the potential to make games a physical activity, so why not promote exercise as well? There's a lot of angst around the idea of kids (and adults) sitting around and getting fat, but if you could earn health points for a PSP game by taking your GPS receiver for a walk, that might be an incentive...

Or it might be completely nuts and further evidence of why I'm not a millionaire entrepreneur! Still it did occur to me that if I could build up points by going running, I might actually beat Guy and Phil at a game someday...

December 8th is the big day then, that's when we get the Wii. I'm not sure how I feel about being pretty much the last territory to get our hands on Nintendo's console... In some ways, it's before Christmas (Sony take note) so that's all good, but it seems such a shame that yet again we're so far behind other markets...still, there's nothing that can be done about that and at least we have a date now! Bring on Wii Sports!

Mind you, at the moment I'm mainly looking forward to getting my hands on a DS Lite. It's my birthday this weekend (yay! but getting older, boo!) and I'm getting a DS Lite of my very own - although I'm holding out for a pink one as I don't like the white, and I already have a black PSP. Still, can't wait to get my brain in training and spend some more time with Mario... I have F1 06 on the PSP to keep me entertained until then :-).

One last note - we have a new competition for UK readers where we're giving away 50 preorder packs for ArchLord. Good luck to all who enter!

Firstly - I have been remiss in my duty to let UK readers know that they can win a DS Lite in our latest competition - good luck to all that enter!

And secondly, the world appears to have gone pink this week. First Sony with the announcement about a pink PS2 and PSP, and then Nintendo, with pink DS Lite releases in the UK and US (there is already one in Japan). There's always been a lot of discussion of 'girls and gaming' (because the female market represents a huge potential source of revenue, I'd imagine...), some of which is useful and some of which is just stereotypical and silly. I'm not particularly going to weigh in on that debate now, but the release of pink hardware is an interesting tactic. Does this mean that girls/women 'should' have the pink and that the other colours are for boys/men? (In the same way that there are "women's" sections in many newspapers - clearly the rest of the pages are way to complicated and clever to feature articles about pilates and shopping.) Does it become a statement to be a female with a black or white DS/PSP?

These aren't questions I can necessarily answer, but in my opinion - and it's only mine - the separate release of these colours does create the impression that 'this is the colour girls should have'. Personally, I'd prefer to see all hardware (particularly portable consoles, in the sense that they are an accessory in the same way that a phone is) in a variety of colours from the start, so that people can just choose what they want rather than looking like they're making some kind of statement, or falling for a marketing tactic.

And let's not forget the most important thing - the games. As it happens, I've got a pink Game Boy Advance - but the reason I love it is because there are great games for it. The hardware can be as pretty (or as macho) as you like, but the games have to be worth it or no one (male or female) is going to bother...